The dark world of “backyard butchers,” who slaughter and butcher animals
on makeshift farms, is spreading across the U.S. every day. Whether a cheap
way to skirt the law, or a misguided attempt to join the go-local movement,
backyard slaughter involves shocking brutality.

When “backyard slaughter” is tolerated, animals suffer immense cruelty,
starvation, botched “live” slaughters, and are kept in disgusting and
diseased yards. Humane slaughter laws, which require animals to be rendered
senseless before slaughter, are not followed; instead animals are sloppily
shot with handguns, and experience excruciating agony from mishandled,
amateur, often live butchering.

No governmental inspection protects these animals or the sanitation of
the yards. Overwhelmed by the upkeep of running slapdash farms, these
butchers starve, mistreat, abuse, neglect, and harm animals to horrific and
gruesome degrees. The yards pose immense risk to public health, safety, and
well-being. Blood and animal byproducts are often illegally disposed of
onsite, jeopardizing local groundwater. Without any kind of regulation, the
meat is sold to the general public on the black market.

Recently, ALDF filed a lawsuit in Florida on behalf of Hillsborough
County residents—who are alarmed by criminal violations of public health
codes and animal slaughter and disposal laws, illegal sale of horse, cow,
and pig meat, and horrifying cruelty to animals found in these yards. ALDF’s
landmark case marks the first time Florida residents have sued to stop the
unspeakable acts of cruelty committed by backyard butchers and the threat to
public health and safety they pose. Help ALDF and the animals by stopping
the development of backyard slaughter in your neighborhood too.

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